It has been known for many years that electrical outlets, particularly in the home, present a serious safety hazard for children. Numerous attempts have been made to provide devices for minimizing the ability of children to receive electrical shocks from wall mounted electrical outlets.
Generally one of the objectives of the many devices is to provide some type of impedance to prevent a child from inserting a foreign metal object into an electrical outlet. Furthermore, it is frequently desirable to prevent or to minimize the ability of a child to insert the electrical plug of an appliance into the outlet so that the appliance will not be inadvertently energized.
Some attention has been given to the additional problem of a child touching the prongs of a male electrical plug is being inserted into or being removed from the outlet while the prongs are "hot". U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,733 granted to George R. Royer on Oct. 6, 1981 is directed to providing hollow cylindrical members that project outward from a wall outlet cover to minimize the ability of a child to touch exposed prongs of a male electrical plug. Such a feature is fairly unsightly and draws visual attention to the wall plug covering. Furthermore, it does not provide any feature for minimizing the ability of a child to insert the male plug into the socket.
Numerous wall outlet covering plates have been suggested having a shutter mechanism that is spring biased to prevent an electrical plug from being directly inserted into the outlet receptacle until the shutter is moved to an aligned position. Representative of such devices are U.S. Pat. No. 2,710,383 granted to Fitzpatrick et al. on June 7, 1955; U.S. Pat. No. 2,820,842 granted to Meistrell on Jan. 21, 1958; U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,442 granted to Kubik et al. on Dec. 11, 1962; U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,456 granted to Dola on Feb. 11, 1975; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,564 granted to Hill on Feb. 3, 1987. The latter two patents are capable of being used with grounded electrical outlet receptacles.
One of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a unique electrical outlet protective cover that is capable of being used either on ungrounded or on grounded electrical outlets.
A further object of this invention is to provide a very attractive appearing electrical outlet cover that is capable of preventing a child from touching or contacting the blades of a male electrical plug as it is being inserted into or removed from the outlet receptacle.
A further object of this invention is to provide a unique indicator means to provide a visual indication of a failure in the outlet cover to adequately prevent the direct insertion of a male electrical plug.
A further object of this invention is to provide a unique locking means for preventing the insertion of a male electrical plug into a receptacle until the locking means is released.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred and alternate embodiment.